poems || Jeff Harrison

Knots of Hilda Doolittle

HERMETIC DEFINITION

to tie a Bowline Knot

Bowline is tied to:
swift thru dolorous lessers

form an eye

eye is tied to:
ships (schooners) affrighted

with the standing part
of the rope running underneath.

run the free end thru the
dolorous lessers swiftly, then
thru the eye (wide, affrighted
by schooners), making a loop
below said eye. take a turn
around
the standing part & feed
the free end back down
the eye & hold there.

pull standing part to tighten knot.

*

HIPPOLYTUS TEMPORIZES

the Double Fisherman's Knot
is made by looping a rope
into a figure-8 in order to tie
two ropes together. since beyond
rope, as in breath, is almost certainly
tyranny, it is recommended the
ropes be secured by their ends.
endless amounts of rope is desired.
practical is to tie two ropes into a loop.
the Double Fisherman will make another
knot secure when tied with the tag end
of the rope behind another knot, in other
words, when half of the Double Fisherman
is tied around the standing line of another knot.

*

HELEN IN EGYPT

to make a Clove Hitch, make a turn
around a post with the free end
running underneath the standing part,
not exactly artistically. was Virginia's idea.
take a second around in the same
direction and feed the free end thru
the eye of the second turn /. pull tight.

It was Virginia's idea to make a Clove Hitch, but Neaera was ready to fall
in with it. It was to be done thoroughly and lastingly but not exactly
artistically. Virginia and Neaera were war widows and had made a solemn
compact to remain widows forever. Ianthe had confessed... As for Appius, he
tied very few knots and very few people asked him to tie anything. O, he
felt to the full the lure of treading WHERE NO HUMAN FOOT HAD EVER TROD.
Ianthe had thrown her wedding-ring at him and flown out of the house. How
Virginia and Neaera would show him they were widows indeed!

easy to tie and untie, it holds firmly but is not totally secure.

*

THE HEDGEHOG

beware! the Square Knot will untie
itself under movement. do not trust
the Square Knot to join two ropes
together. the Square Knot will capsize
under a heavy load. when tying the Square
Knot, both parts of the rope must exit
together. whence the untrustworthiness
and trickiness of the Square Knot? gather
around: but no, I will breathe not a word,
not until the Double Fisherman runs out of
rope.

these are the words he was at last compelled to write.

*

HYMEN

to tie an Anchor Bend Knot,
make two turns around
the shackle, leaving turns
open. knots may evade us,
as our own features are
less familiar to us, to our.
take a half-turn around
the standing line and
feed the free end thru
the turns and pull tight.

the Anchor Bend Knot was a ruin awash in wilderness when I found it.